Amazon, Meta join fight against Google Pay, PhonePe dominance in India
Original: Amazon, Meta join fight to end Google Pay, PhonePe dominance in India
Why This Matters
India's UPI processes billions of transactions monthly, making market structure critical for fintech competition
Amazon and Meta will lobby India's payments body Thursday over Google Pay and PhonePe's 80% market share of UPI transactions. Meeting includes Amazon Pay, WhatsApp, CRED, MobiKwik executives seeking restrictions on dominant players' practices.
Executives from Amazon Pay, WhatsApp, CRED, MobiKwik, and Flipkart's Super.money will meet the National Payments Corporation of India Thursday to challenge the dominance of Google Pay and PhonePe in India's Unified Payments Interface network. The two dominant apps control roughly 80% of the 22.6 billion monthly UPI transactions as of March. PhonePe reported 700 million registered users and 50 million merchants across 98% of India's postal codes. The meeting follows India's decision to defer UPI market share caps of 30% per app until December 2026, allowing the current duopoly to persist. Smaller players will propose restrictions on user onboarding practices, fair access to features like autopay, and regulatory support for emerging competitors.